What Would Make You Stop Tanning?

Despite the fact that baking in the sun—or in a tanning bed—has been shown to significantly raise the risk of skin cancer, people still apparently find a tan sexy. In a recent study, researchers at Emory University posted pictures on hotornot.com to test whether "hotness" ratings would change when the same woman was shown with her natural complexion and then a slightly darker skin tone. The researchers found that the tan version was twice as likely to be rated as more attractive.

Clay Routledge, professor of psychology at North Dakota State University, told the ABC news website that we don't always respond rationally to a health risk. "No one would be surprised that girls say they tan because it makes them look good. What is surprising is that if you remind them that it puts them at higher risk for cancer, we find that it makes them want to tan more," he says. When doctors try to scare people away from something, explains Routledge, they respond by seeking comfort in precisely the behavior that puts them at risk. Smokers, for instance, turn to smoking when they're freaked out about lung cancer.

So what's the solution? Maybe appealing to someone's vanity instead. In another recent study, this one done at Staffordshire University in England, women who saw the effects smoking would have on their faces vowed to give up their bad habit. Researchers used a computer program to morph a photograph of the test subjects so they could see how smoking would affect their skin. Two thirds of participants in the project said they will quit smoking as a direct consequence of seeing how their appearance will change.

What about you? Do you stop doing something if you know it's bad for you—or would you need evidence that it'll make you look bad too, like seeing your face aged or ravaged by skin cancer?